Mbi yeke manda ti tene Songo

I started learning Songo this week! Everyday my teacher, Madam Marie Claire, comes to my house and from 1-2pm I sit with her in the grass hut in my yard listening to her say words and then trying my best to say each word exactly how she said it. Songo is an interesting language to learn because it’s tonal and also has different letter formations than in English. The most difficult words for me to say are the “kp” and the “mb” words like “kpaka” which means to write and "kpe" which means run and “mbo” which can mean dog or to clean depending on which tone you say it in.

I’ve been focusing on learning Songo but I have been learning all sorts of other things as well. On Sunday I had my first African church experience, I’ve been learning how to do my job with the orphan care project, and I’ve been learning how to shop and cook African style. Oh... and I've been doing a lot of swimming at the American ambassador's pool. Here are a few pictures from this week.

The church I went to on Sunday

hanging out with kids after church

me with Pastor Marc Dounia and his wife Rebecca

the pastor, deacons, and wives

Pastor Dounia is at the missions station quite a bit working at the print shop. When I saw him the other day I got excited because, for one, I remembered his name and also because when he said hello and asked me how I was doing I actually knew what he was saying and was able to answer him in Songo!

the US ambassador's pool

fruit and vegetables for sale

a little piece of America

a class at the orphan care center

whenever I pull out my camera there are lots of curious little Africans wanting their pictures taken

me with some of the teenage girls at the orphan center (I'm the one in blue ;)

On Wednesday Barb took me and Caitlin (and a few visiting pastors) out to the orphan care center to give us a tour. I got introduced to a lot of teachers, kids, and teenagers I'll be working with this year.

the new orphans at the Ber Cail orphan center

This morning we had our first job assignment at another one of the orphan centers in Ber Cail. There are around 30 new students enrolled at this school this year so Caitlin and I had the job of taking individual pictures of each of these new kids. The pictures we took, along with a brief bio of each child, will be posted on the Project Hope and Charite website so that people can look through them and sponsor the children. The kids below are a couple of the orphans we photographed this morning.